It was rumored that on July 28, 2020, Toymaker company Mattel was attacked. And that, for the foremost part, it had been alleviated quickly and had the lowest impact on the company.
But until now, nothing was spoken about it (as if it never happened).
It’s unclear how the attack occurred, the malware used threat actors behind the attack, and also the strain of ransomware employed by adversaries.
Let’s take a look at the whole situation and take a look at to find out what happened to Mattel:
Mattel Is Hit By Ransomware Attack
In a year once ransomware has vulnerable elections, hospitals, and schools, the attack on Mattel demonstrates over again that the attack technique is going away no quite target untouched.
According to the company’s 10-Q regulatory filing with the U.S. Security Exchange Commission (SEC):
“Promptly upon detection of the attack, Mattel began enacting its response protocols and taking a series of measures to stop the attack and restore impacted systems. Mattel contained the attack and, although some business functions were temporarily impacted, Mattel restored its operations,”
But the company wrote…
“A forensic investigation of the incident has concluded, and no exfiltration of any sensitive business data or retail customer, supplier, consumer, or employee data was identified. There has been no material impact on Mattel’s operations or financial condition as a result of the incident.”
Here’s a fact: In North America, ransomware was up one hundred and five percent, in line with the report by SonicWall.
And this attack represents the newest incident, which is a component of a string of reported ransomware attacks against giant corporations.
Count the corporate behind Barbie dolls and Fisher-Price toys among the ever-growing list of digital extortion victims.
Last week federal enforcement officers plumbed the alarm and issued a dire warning of more ransomware attacks to come.
They have done the same with online privacy and spyware-promoting groups.
As for Mattel, it’s downplaying the impact of the ransomware attack it fended off, explaining no “sensitive business data or retail customer, supplier, consumer, or employee data” was exposed or extorted as a result of the attack.
This wasn’t Mattel’s first brush with hackers.
Cybercriminals tricked an executive in 2015 into sending over $3 million.
Here’s what the FBI said for CBS News: “The scam the company fell victim to — known as the fake CEO or fake president scam — has cost companies, many of them American, more than $1.8 billion, according to the FBI. Most of the stolen money passes through banks in China or Hong Kong.”
So it means, that “while Mattel carries cyber and business continuity insurance commensurate with its size and the nature of its operations, there can be no guarantee that costs incurred as a result of cyber-events will be covered completely.”
It has been proven that innocence is long gone from this world.
And if you’re a frequent reader of our blog then in the first place, we want to thank you for keep coming back!
And second, we want to make sure you’re safe and don’t lose your peace of mind.
Because growing a business shouldn’t translate into getting attacked by cybercriminal organizations.
Even if it happens, you should at least have the guarantee that (1) you have a response and recovery plan in place, and (2) that you can survive any emergency.